


Battle Scars

by WinchesterWarrenSon



Series: Battle Scars Series [1]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Developmentally Disabled Son Goku, Disabled Character, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 17:42:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3390455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinchesterWarrenSon/pseuds/WinchesterWarrenSon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chichi kicked Goku out for an indefinite amount of time. Goku ends up rooming with Yamcha. Yamcha has some scars Goku can't remember Yamcha having. They talk about them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Battle Scars

Goku lay on the fuuton that Yamcha had set out for him. When the arrangement started, Goku would simply stare at the ceiling, initially wondering when Chichi would call and say that she was ready to talk or at least tell him what it was exactly that she expected him to do…. But the longer there was no call, the more easily it became to just think about different things. “Out of sight, out of mind” was something that Goku was very good at, whether he realized it or not or just how not-a-good-idea that could be at times.

And he had been having fun with Yamcha. A lot of fun. He honestly hadn’t realized he could have so much fun without training be involved. And Yamcha was teaching him a lot of cool things, and he would phrase questions and requests in ways that Goku could better understand…. He had no idea why Yamcha was so much better at it than Chichi or Bulma or Master Roshi or any of the others. He just was.

But there was something that was occupying his thoughts right now. He had been noticing it for a few nights now, and he was currently staring at it instead of at the ceiling.

Yamcha had a tendency to roll over just so, with the arm that was underneath him splayed outside of the covers. His sleeve would end up shifting just so, and Goku could very easily see vertical scars on his wrist.

Yamcha rolled over again, and Goku waited for him to settle. Puar was asleep down near Yamcha’s feet, and Oolong was camped on the other side of the bedroom. He waited to see if Puar was going to wake from Yamcha’s movements, then when it appeared that she wasn’t, he quietly got up and tiptoed to the other side.

Goku knelt down to see if Yamcha’s other wrist had similar scars. And it did. He furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what it meant.

"… Goku?"

Goku was a little startled to have been caught, and he turned his head to see that Yamcha was indeed awake.

"Hey."

"What’re you doing?"

"Well … I had seen this scars the other night, and I wondered if the other hand had them, and I was wondering what battle they were from."

Yamcha was quiet for a moment. He shifted so that he was sitting up but wasn’t disturbing Puar. Puar curled up with her stuffed toy and didn’t stir.

"A battle with myself."

Goku tilted his head a little. “You mean … you got cloned or something?”

"No. I mean my brain sometimes thinks things and tells me to do things that aren’t good for me…."

Goku furrowed his eyebrows and frowned a little.

"Why does it do that?"

Yamcha shrugged. “It just does.”

"Is there anything you can do about it?"

"That’s what Dr. Parrish is for."

Goku was quiet for a minute, then asked, “What is it that your brain tells you to do?”

Yamcha was quiet for a long moment,

"It’s not important. And it’s not like it is all that straight forward at first. I don’t know if I’d be able to explain it in a way you’d understand…. Or rather, I can explain it in a way you’d understand, but then you’d try to find a way to fix it, and there … isn’t, really, anything that can be done to fix it. It’s my battle, and it’s something I have to do on my own. And I don’t really like talking about it." Yamcha snorted a little. "To be honest, if you were Bulma or Krillin, I wouldn’t have said anything and kept the whole thing to myself."

"How come?"

"They’d … have immediately known what it was about just by looking at it and … I don’t want their pity."

Goku nodded. “That makes sense…. Even though you have to fight on your own, can I still have senzu beans on hand?”

Yamcha stared at him for a few moments, then he laughed softly.

"I dunno how helpful senzus might be unless it’s a real emergency, but I certainly appreciate the support."

Goku smiled. “Good.”

Yamcha was quiet for a moment, then asked, “Goku? If … there’s ever another situation where … a lot of us have died, including me … when you wish everyone back with the Dragon Balls, can you make sure that it doesn’t bring me back unless I want to be?”

"Sure," Goku said, not really understanding why he was being asked that. "But … how come?"

Yamcha smiled, but Goku could tell it was a sad one, somehow.

"It’s nothing really, it’s just … while my brain has never been that kind to me … dying and then coming back to life gave it a big weapon. ‘You’ve been dead before, you know what Otherworld is like, there’s nothing to be afraid of.’ It just … wasn’t conducive to telling my brain no. And this is just between us, okay? I don’t want any of the others knowing about this."

Goku nodded. “Right. Do Puar and Oolong know?”

"Yeah…." The smile went away at that point, and Goku frowned deeply.

He didn’t want Yamcha going back to bed sad…. There had to be something to cheer him up…. Goku thought back to all his experiences in making people happy, and he tried to find something that would be appropriate in this moment.

Remembering how happy Chichi would get when he did what he did next, he leaned forward as he started to stand up and kissed Yamcha on the cheek.

"I love you. Sleep well, okay?"

It was a little before-bed ritual that he and Chichi had built up. It had started with her doing it in the early days of their marriage, then Goku picked up on it and kept being the one to initiate it after he saw just how much she blushed and smiled every time he did it.

Even though, when he thought about it too much, he wasn’t entirely sure what the phrase “I love you” really meant when Chichi said it to him, because it seemed to be different from when he said it.

But he didn’t like thinking about that stuff too hard, because it made his brain feel fuzzy, so he didn’t think about it.

Goku went back to his fuuton and worked on going to sleep.

Yamcha, on the other hand, stayed sitting upright, frozen as he realized that Goku had _kissed his cheek_ and said _I love you to him_ , in just so casual a way that he had always fantasized that he would be kissed by a future wife or that he would kiss said wife. So effortless and yet … fully sincere and … .

He wasn’t sure if it was anxiety, but it didn’t feel like his usual anxiety. He slowly looked over his shoulder at Goku, but the Saiyan had gone to sleep already.

Yamcha’s heart was beating too fast, and he couldn’t quite make sense of the action, but he was also getting a warm feeling in his stomach that he used to get when Bulma would hold his hand or kiss him.

Eventually, he lay back down and forced himself not to think about it. Goku did a lot of stuff without thinking. This had to be one of them. There was nothing else to it….

There was no way he was falling for his _married, male best friend_.

His brain knew better.


End file.
